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FRIENDS GIVE ADVICE: MOVE FSU TO THE TOP
By Dana Peck
Special to the Florida State Times
Faculty, alumni and Florida State friends have mapped out a plan for the university's future.
Among the recommendations - from two groups called the interior and exterior branches of the Commission on the Future - are proposals to raise money to put FSU in the top national ranking of research centers, expand its medical and performing-arts studies and revitalize its liberal-arts curriculum.
If the recommendations are adopted, Florida State will also raise its entrance requirements for undergraduates and work to change the law to allow FSU to set its own tuition.
"We don't want to change our university," said Dr. Marie Cowart, head of the 19-member faculty group on the commission. "We want to strengthen it ... hire the best faculty and recruit the best students and support them both."
When the recommendations were presented to FSU President Sandy D'Alemberte in September, Adam Herbert, chancellor of the state university system, was encouraging.
"It's clearly a lofty goal," Herbert said. "But I don't think you should settle for that You have the foundation not just to become a top-tier university at least in the top 20 AAU research universities."
Beginning in November 1997, Cowart led the internal branch of the Commission on the Future in weekly meetings of faculty members to find ways to advance FSU to the ranks of the top universities in the nation.
Thomas Pet-way, a Jacksonville business leader and for-mer member of the Board of Regents, led the commission's external branch, a group of alumni and friends of Florida State.
The Commission's detailed reports emphasized the need for Florida State to further develop its computer technology and initiate a new capital campaign.
D'Alemberte sees the reports as the beginning of a 10-year plan.
"We are confident that FSU can reach the lofty goal of being the best, and they have given us a road map to get there," he said.
The faculty group began its work with an address in November from Dr. Frank Rhodes, president emeritus of Cornell University. Rhodes called FSU a "well-kept secret."
When the commission made its report, Rhodes came back on campus and recommended "Jubilee professorships" to give the university a fast jump into the ranks of noticeably superior universities: "Hire the best people in the world on 10, 20 or 30 given topics and channel resources from whatever to make this happen."
The external group of business leaders agreed with Rhodes' advice that FSU needs to increase its visibility and show the public the benefits of a strong university within the community.
Both groups concluded that FSU should strengthen the ties with the private sector and other universities. The groups pointed to successful cooperative efforts such as the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory.
Furthermore, both groups also said laws need to be changed if Florida State is going to earn national prominence.
The most urgent changes are needed in the state's outdated and depleted financing system for building projects, in addition to changes in the system for setting tuitions, the report said.
No. 1 on the list of capital projects at FSU should be a performing arts center, the report said. The external group advised a second year of medical education at FSU.
The need for expanded medical education is obvious, the group said, with the growing population of Floridians who need medical care.
The full text of the Commission's report may be read on the Internet at http://www.fsu.edu/~future.